In the current political and economic climate, there is drive across various industries to reduce the environmental impact of product manufacturing and use and other business practices. There is also a drive to service economically disadvantaged countries, not only in the pursuit of profits, but in the pursuit of the well being of the inhabitants of those countries. Business models that are successful in both reducing environmental impact and servicing disadvantaged countries are of extreme benefit to the world.
One way to reduce environmental impact is to reduce the “carbon footprint” of the operations of an industry. The “carbon footprint” is generally understood as being related to the amount of carbon-based fuels employed in carrying out the functions of a given industry. In light of the fact that most current energy sources having practical utility are carbon-based, all manner of production and transportation, including product transportation, increase an industry's carbon footprint.
With respect to the soap dispensing industry, which, in accordance with this disclosure, is to include both the provision of soap dispensers and the provision of soap to fill those dispensers, the amount of carbon-based energy employed to ship soap products could be significantly reduced to thereby reduce the carbon footprint of the soap-dispensing industry. Particularly, soap dispensers are typically designed with dispenser housings that receive either a bulk supply of soap or what are known as “refill units” of liquid-based soap, the refill units including a container of liquid-based soap and a pump mechanism that is actuated to advance a dose of fluid from the container toward the ultimate dispenser outlet. In the dispensers employing refill units, the dispenser housings are provided as generally permanent structures at given locations, while the refill units of liquid-based soap are disposable products that must be constantly shipped to the location of these dispenser housings to replace empty refill units as the soap therein is depleted. Because the active ingredients of the soap are incorporated into water or other liquids, the liquid-based soap product is quite heavy and voluminous. This means that the transportation of such liquid-based soaps will require significant amounts of energy per a given amount of cleaning utility offered by the soap. This contributes to the carbon footprint of the industry and, thus, there is a need in the art to provide more concentrated soaps that are capable of providing an acceptable level of cleaning utility, while being of relatively low weight and volume, thereby reducing the energy expended in transporting them as compared to highly liquid-based, less concentrated soaps of the prior art.
The significant weight of water-based soaps also currently makes it uneconomical to ship to economically disadvantaged countries. Particularly, those countries might not be able to afford the water-based soaps in light of the built-in costs relating to the transportation thereof. Thus, by providing concentrated soaps and dispensers for concentrated soaps, it might be possible to reduce shipping costs sufficiently to successfully market and provide soap and dispensers to economically disadvantaged countries.
In order that the concentrated soaps are well-received, the art must also provide a desirable dispenser system employing such concentrated soaps, and the present invention is directed to this need.